think hard, think well

Are book collectors real readers, or just cultural snobs? | Aeon Essays. “Digital reading, like the perusing of ancient scrolls, constitutes an important statement about who we are. Like the public readers of Martial’s Rome, the avid readers of text messages and other forms of social media appear to be everywhere. Though in both cases the performers of reading are tirelessly constructing their self-image, the identity they aspire to establish is very different. Young people sitting in a bar checking their phones for texts are not making a statement about their refined literary status. They are signalling that they are connected and – most importantly – that their attention is in constant demand.”

Recycling: Can It Be Wrong, When It Feels So Right? | Cato Unbound

Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Cheap Shots | Wesley Hill | First Things.

Queen Offers to Restore British Rule Over United States – The New Yorker. “This two-hundred-and-forty-year experiment in self-rule began with the best of intentions, but I think we can all agree that it didn’t end well.”

“The NHL’s “loser point” is the stupidest rule in sports.” Preach it!

George Will: Donald Trump is the GOP’s chemotherapy. “Trump is a marvelously efficient acid bath, stripping away his supporters’ surfaces, exposing their skeletal essences.” Which is he–chemo, or acid bath?

N. T. Wright: The Church Continues the Revolution Jesus Started… | Christianity Today.

Evangelicals, Heresy, and Scripture Alone | Mathew Block | First Things. “Two years after a study found most Evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical—especially on the Holy Spirit—an update has been released. And the numbers are in some ways even worse. So who—or what—is to blame?”

How Curt Flood Changed Baseball and Killed His Career in the Process – The Atlantic.

A very interesting trend: Baseball managers finally making sabermetrically-sensible use of their bullpens. Dave Roberts pulled the right strings using Kenley Jansen in 7th, Clayton Kershaw in 9th – HardballTalk.

Why Baseball Revived A 60-Year-Old Strategy Designed To Stop Ted Williams | FiveThirtyEight.

In the religion department… Continue reading →

Stories of refugees from the Syrian War…
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